A celebration of the country’s finest food and drink, the BBC Good Food Show Scotland will be returning to Glasgow’s SEC Centre for its 12th year from tomorrow, Friday 19 until Sunday 21 October 2018. The show will be packed with live cookery demos from top chefs and experts, the finest food and drink producers, regional specialities and plenty of culinary inspiration.
This year’s highlights include the return of The Big Kitchen where you can pick up top tips and recipe inspiration from a stellar line up of your favourite TV chefs, including: Michelin-starred Tom Kerridge; MasterChef’s John Torode; chef, author and TV presenter, Nadiya Hussain and the return of Great British Bake Off’s Paul Hollywood.
Local flavours include:
Pop-Up Restaurants – Sample the city’s culinary delights from pop-ups of some of Glasgow’s finest restaurants. New for 2018 – visit Chez Mal, Malmaison Glasgow’s French-inspired restaurant, on Friday; on Saturday, it’s the return of Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery and on Sunday, Grill on the Corner, based in Bothwell Street, will be making their first appearance at the show.
Taste the World – Presented by the Glasgow Restaurant Association. Come along to the sampling theatre and listen to top local restauranteurs as they share samples of canapés and sweet bites for the audience to taste. Sessions are free to attend and don’t require booking in advance. Anne Mulhern from The Willow Tea Rooms will host the sessions.
Ahead of his appearance in Glasgow, Paul Hollywood has shared his favourite soda bread recipe with us. Try this one at home.
STILTON & WALNUT SODA BREAD
MAKES 1 LOAF
“Adding extra flavours to bread dough is popular these days but it was rare when I started out. Blue cheese works well in all types of bread and becomes even more special when combined with walnuts in this savoury soda bread.”
500g plain white flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g walnut pieces
200g Stilton, crumbled
400ml buttermilk
Heat your oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and line a large baking tray with baking parchment.
Put the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and mix well. Add the walnuts and Stilton and stir gently.
Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour in half the buttermilk. Using the fingers of one hand (or a round-bladed knife and then your fingers), draw the flour into the buttermilk.
Continue to add the buttermilk until all the flour has been incorporated and you have a sticky dough. You may not need all the buttermilk (different brands of flour absorb slightly more or less liquid).
Tip the dough onto a floured surface, shape into a ball and then flatten slightly. Place on the prepared baking tray. Use a large sharp knife to mark the loaf into quarters, cutting deeply into the dough but not quite through the base. Dust the top of the loaf with flour.
Bake for 30–35 minutes until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the base. You can carefully cut along one of the seams to see if the inside is cooked through; if not, put the loaf back in the oven for 5 minutes or so.
Transfer the soda bread to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. It is best eaten on the day it is made, or at least finished within a day or two. It also freezes well.
Extract taken from A Baker’s Life by Paul Hollywood (Bloomsbury Publishing, £26)
Photography © Martin Poole